Scrimmage Gone South (Crimson Romance) (7 page)

I loved that, touching his skin with him smiling at me, though his eyes were closed. Nathan sure felt different from Ronnie Montjoy. I could have done it all night. After a while, he let out a little moan and said, “You are the best girlfriend ever.” Then he opened his eyes and there was that sweet misty look again.

Girlfriend.
Was I really more than his phone pal? Could it really be that he thought of me that way, that he wasn’t dating other girls? I didn’t know what to say. Turns out I didn’t have to say anything. He opened his eyes and pulled me to him. “Stay with me tonight.”

The time was here. I had to tell him. I pulled away and sat on the bed Indian style and finally let the words come out of mouth. “I have something to tell you, something that you are not going to like.”

His expression changed totally. His mouth went into a hard line and he narrowed his eyes.

“Okay,” he said.

I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. But I had an idea of something different to tell him that would accomplish the same thing. He’d tell me to go and he wouldn’t call anymore.

“I’m a virgin,” I said. “And I plan to stay that way, at least for now. I am not one to have casual sex, or have sex with someone I have not known very long. I have to make sure it’s the right guy and the right time. I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.” He looked surprised, then puzzled. I was right. He was not happy. I don’t know why I said what I did next. It just came out. “But if I was going to have sex with someone I hadn’t known long, it would you.”

That got a giant smile out of him and I realized then, I probably shouldn’t have added that last part.

He laughed a little, sat up, and hugged me hard. Then he kissed my temple. “I still want you to stay with me. Believe me when I say, you’re safe with me tonight.” Then he had another one of those coughing fits. “I don’t know if I would have been able to do it anyway, though I was willing to try.”

And I said yes, that I’d stay. It was like I had no sense but he was so sick and didn’t have anyone to take care of him. He gave me a pair of drawstring shorts and a t-shirt. I brushed my teeth with one of those new toothbrushes, gave him some cough syrup, and we went to bed.

How can there even be casual sex? Not that we had sex or anything close to it. But I mean how can you sleep with someone all night and not fall in love? He held me all night and sometimes he would wake up and hug me to him harder. His arms were so strong and I felt so safe. Sometimes he would kiss the hollow of my neck and stroke my stomach. That made me nervous and he must have known it because he whispered that I shouldn’t worry, that he wasn’t going to do anything else. And he didn’t.

I never wanted the night to end, but it did, of course. I had to leave early. I didn’t figure Harris would be back before mid-afternoon at the earliest but I couldn’t risk it. I told Nathan I had to get back to school to study and he didn’t argue. He had to go get checked out by the team doctor again and maybe get another shot. So we ate some Cocoa Puffs from the kitchen and I showed him how to work the vaporizer.

Then he said he wanted to tell me something. I’m going to write it all down here exactly as he said it so that I’ll still have it when he hates me.

Here it is: “Townshend, I have to admit it threw me for a loop for a second last night when you told me you were a virgin. But hypocritical as it is, I like that. I’m glad you haven’t had sex with anyone else and that you are waiting for the right guy and the right time. But I’m putting you on notice right now that I’m going to do my dead level best to be that guy and I’m going to create that time. You’re everything I want — classy, pretty, smart, and funny. And no one has ever been as sweet to me as you have been this weekend. You could probably go to England and get yourself some kind of a British Lord or something.” He narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Of course, he probably wouldn’t have the kind of money I’m about to have. And I’m not above using that money to get what I want.”

Then he went to his closet and handed me a jersey with his number and name on it. He told me it was the jersey he’d been wearing in the Sugar Bowl last January when he was named most valuable player. He pointed out a little tear at the neck that was a result of what should have been a holding penalty but was never called.

Then he gave me a ticket to the last game of the season, the Alabama/Auburn game, and said he wanted me to wear that jersey to the game, like the other players’ girlfriends. The ticket was for the student section and he said he would arrange for me to sit with a girl he’d gone to high school with, who is dating Harris Bragg. Her name is Missy and he’s pretty sure I’ll like her because she is classy and smart like me.

God, help me. I have written all this down and I still haven’t figured anything out. I’ve got two weeks. Maybe if I read it, something will come to me.

• • •

And that was all. Tolly had never written another word in the book and she’d never figured a way out of her mess. It caught up with her less than a week later but, even if she’d had more time, she couldn’t have fixed it without walking away from him. And her heart wouldn’t let her.

The diner was empty except for Lou Anne behind the counter. Not surprising for two o’clock on a Thursday afternoon. Tolly slid onto a stool at the counter.

“Hey, baby. Your girls were in earlier. Where were you?” Lou Anne poured her a glass of iced tea.

“Court. I’m starving.”

“What can I get you?”

“Maybe just a little chicken salad and some crackers?”

“Sure thing.” Lou Anne plopped a scoop of the salad on a lettuce leaf. “But that’s not much for someone who’s starving.”

“If I eat much more than that I won’t want any dinner and now that I have a teenage boy to feed … ”

Lou Anne laughed and set the plate in front of her. “I can only imagine what a change — ” The bell on the door rang and Nathan Scott came barreling through like an angry missile — if a missile could be all caramel and butterscotch with a great ass.

He marched up to Tolly and said, “I was looking for you.”

“Then you have met with success — ” She took her time lifting her napkin to her lips. “ — for here I am.”

“Nathan,” Lou Anne interrupted sternly. “You are under my roof.”

“Oh.” He looked sheepish and removed his Merritt High Bobcats baseball cap. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry.” Then he turned full throttle back to Tolly. “Harris said you were here.”

“Oh? Then Harris also gets a person locater prize.” She took a sip of her iced tea. “What brings you into my presence, Nathan?” Out of the corner of her eye, Tolly saw Lou Anne slip into the kitchen.

“We just had weigh-in. Seven has lost two pounds since he moved in with you. Two pounds!” He slapped his baseball cap against his knee. “That’s five pounds in all since his grandmother died. I can’t have it.”

“Then I suggest that you stop working him so hard,” Tolly said coolly. “For starters you can stop having him come clean up that stadium on Saturday mornings. Those boys should get to sleep late after playing the night before.”

“What? Did he complain about that?”

“Complain? Kirby complain about
you
? Oh, no I can assure you he did not. You are a god among men — maybe
the
God. If you say it’s an honor and a privilege to play football and a football player should keep his house clean, let it be written because it is the gospel. No. I decided the stupidity of that arrangement all on my own.”

“Stupid? I’ll tell you what’s stupid. You aren’t feeding that boy right.”

“He’s getting a balanced diet.” And that was true — most of the time.

“Really? What did he have for dinner last night?”

Oh, she had him now. Last night had been a good night. She had, with the help of the Crockpot, made one of the few things she could cook. “We had pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and salad.” Kirby had also had a Snickers bar and a bowl of ice cream but she didn’t mention that.

“Oh, you did, did you? Do you know how much fat pot roast has in it??

“So? Weren’t you just complaining that he had lost weight?”

“What did he eat for breakfast?”

She was on thinner ice now.

“Juice. Milk. Cereal.”

“What kind of cereal?” Nathan asked sanctimoniously, as if he already knew the answer.

“Sugar Smacks.” She had nothing to be ashamed of.

“Sugar Smacks!” Nathan threw his cap on the counter. “That boy cannot have Sugar Smacks. Don’t you know he is an athlete?”

She had him now. “You ate sugar cereal when you played football.”

The fight in his face gave way to astonishment. “How — ?”

“I remember. Cocoa Puffs. Don’t deny it.” She would have remembered even if she had not read that journal entry fifteen times in the last three days.

“Maybe I want him to be healthier than I was. Maybe I don’t want him to get hurt.”
Like I did,
hung in the air. The fight came back in Nathan’s eyes and radiated out until his beautiful face was a study in fury. He looked like a warrior angel marching into battle and
she
was the enemy. “Maybe we know a little more about nutrition these days. You’d know that, if you’d read the nutrition guide I sent you. Did you even look at it? For breakfast he needs an egg white omelet, four ounces of lean meat, two pieces of fruit, and a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter or cottage cheese. Plus yogurt or milk. Both, if he wants it while he’s underweight.”

Did Kirby really need all that? Could he eat it? She didn’t eat that much all day. Of course, she didn’t play football, nor was she a seventeen-year-old boy. She intended to look at the nutrition guide. She just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

But she didn’t say any of that. She would have died first. “Kirby likes Sugar Smacks. He’s been through a lot.”

“Well, I imagine he would
like
to have sex with three French Quarter pole dancers. Are you going to set that up for him too?”

“Now, you see here, Nathan, if you don’t like how I’m doing things, maybe you should have taken him.”

“Maybe I should have. Load him up and send him over. I can’t do any worse. At least I’d keep some weight on him.”

“Yeah, you’d probably tell him that it’s an honor and a privilege to live with you and he has to keep your house clean.”

Nathan closed his eyes. “I’m going to explain this to you since you couldn’t be bothered to read what I sent you. He needs to eat a certain way to build muscle. I see that he gets the correct strength training, but it will not work if he doesn’t get the proper nutrition. Do you know why he needs to be strong?”

“So he can throw that ball and make you a success,” she said evenly.

“No, Townshend. It’s so he won’t get hurt. It’s so he can withstand a contact sport. He’s a kid who is so grateful to you for taking him in that he won’t say a word if you give him lima beans and tofu three meals a day. He needs help with this but I guess that’s too much trouble for you. I guess you don’t care if he gets hurt.”

Tolly felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth go dry. She closed her eyes against the memory that she had tried and failed to banish. Nathan at the bottom of a pile; body after body emerging and standing, but Nathan remaining down, writhing in pain; the trainers running to surround him; the stretcher; Nathan raising a hand and being wheeled away, with the crowd going wild. And later, the phone calls that he refused to answer and the visit to the hospital. She bit her cheek against the pain of that memory.

“Don’t ever imply,” she said quietly, every word shrouded in ice, “that I don’t care if Kirby gets hurt.” She folded her napkin and laid it on the counter.

“Since you haven’t read the parent packet, there’s something you need to know before Friday night. If he gets sacked, and he probably will at least once, you keep your seat. If you are needed I will send for you. I can’t have hysterical females trying to get on my field every time one of my players takes a spill.”

“No problem,” she said. “I will not be there. I don’t go to football games.”

His nostrils flared, his face reddened, and the Angel was now a fallen angel because, surely, angels couldn’t get that angry. “Did you say what I think you said?”

“I don’t go to football games. I have not been to a game since — well, not for a very long time.”

“You damn well will. If you didn’t want to go to football games you should have considered that before you took that boy in. Mothers go to games. They watch their boys play ball — at least decent ones do.”

“I’m not his — ”

“No, you’re not, but you’re all he’s got. You didn’t think any of it through, but you took it up. Now you’ve got to see it through.”

“Look, Nathan, I’ll own up to the part about the food. I haven’t read the information and I didn’t understand. I haven’t had a lot of time to figure this out yet. And I will see to it that he eats what he is supposed to. But I am not going to that stadium to watch those boys bulldoze each other.”

“Townshend — ” he began.

“That’s all. Tell Lou Anne I had to go.” And she placed ten dollars on the counter and left.

• • •

Nathan sat down on Townshend’s abandoned stool and pushed her untouched food away. The stool was still warm. An unsmiling Lou Anne came out of the kitchen. Without speaking, she mixed a vanilla milkshake and set it, along with four ibuprofen, in front of him.

“Your knee hurts.” It was a statement.

“My knee always hurts just a little more when Townshend is in the room.”

“Who?” Lou Anne wrinkled her brow.

“Townshend. Tolly.”

“Why did you call her Townshend?”

“That’s her name. Anyway, thanks.” He took a drink of the milkshake and swallowed the pills.

“I can see why that little scene would make your knee hurt. I wonder where Tolly hurts.” Lou Anne cleared away the uneaten chicken salad and poured herself a cup of coffee.

“That wasn’t a scene,” he said. “I hate a scene. A scene only happens if there are other people to witness it.”

“I
am
other people.”

“You heard?”

“Most of it.
All
of what you said.”